Simple tasty tacos

Less than a handful of years ago, I inherited a prized possession from my late grandfather, his comal. In Mexico, cooks use this flat griddle to cook tortillas and tacos. Some comales have a shallow basin in the middle which is filled with oil for deep frying. I have even seen street vendors in Tijuana sauteing meat and vegetables on their comal while just inside the border crossing, while tourists sauntered past.

But the most important about the comal, my grandfather would insist, is that it is heated very hot to toast tortillas. Then they are filled with cheese for quesadillas or meat for tacos. Few things made him angrier than cold tortillas.

Quesadillas were the key to my survival for most of my college career. I skipped past the lettuce and other healthy food in the fridge and threw cheese onto a tortilla and into the – gasp! – toaster oven. It wasn’t until I got that comal that I was taken back to the way tortillas were meant to be eaten: Hot, slightly crispy, and containing pretty much anything.

My comal is made from cast iron. After years of service in my family with my grandfather, it is perfectly seasoned. I have never seen cast iron so perfect. Later, we will talk more about seasoning cast iron. I clean it just by rubbing in salt with canola oil and it returns to perfect.

Once your comal – or any well-seasoned cast iron pan – is hot on the grill, then carefully count the number of hungry people in your kitchen, serve them drinks and then start your taco cycle:

Fold the tortilla carefully over the filling, while still leaving it in the pan.

Guess what? You just made more room in the pan! Add another tortilla and start over.

Keep doing this until there are no more hungry people in your kitchen. Have a number of salsas on hand: how about a jalapeno/roasted tomato salsa, or tomatillo salsa with serrano peppers. Just the other day at Lola’s in Long Beach we tried a very mild salsa of avocado pureed in a Mexican crema fresca.